LEGO Ideas’ latest 10K project is giving serious déjà vu

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Rafael Ponce’s Magic Bookends have just reached 10,000 votes on LEGO Ideas, and will now be considered as an official LEGO set.

If you were paying attention to LEGO Ideas in 2021 you definitely will have heard that one before, because this exact same project did exactly the same thing in December that year. It was ultimately rejected by the LEGO Group in July 2022, as part of the third 2021 review, and never entered production. But that didn’t stop its determined creator, known as Brick Dangerous on LEGO Ideas, from resubmitting the same build in May this year.

It’s now cracked the third 2024 review in a little under six months, as the LEGO Ideas community shows its support for the concept of brick-built bookends with a fantastical flavour. The 1,496-piece model, which is identical to the original submission in every way, is anchored around the idea of tiny elves who write stories and folklore and have now created houses from books.

A few users in the comments section on LEGO Ideas have pointed out that a very similar (if not identical) build was once available through Temu, though the product listing in question has since been removed. While it’s impossible to say for sure now, one likely explanation is that a clone brand appropriated Rafael's design without permission, which is unfortunately an all-too-common occurrence.

In any case, the decision to turn the Magic Bookends into an official LEGO set now rests with the LEGO Ideas review board. We’ll learn the fate of this project sometime in summer 2025, when its creator will be hoping to avoid another case of déjà vu…

LEGO Ideas projects in the third 2024 review

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